Week: During the week ending on the date shown above, of every 100 hidef disc units sold, 66 were
Blu-ray and 34 HD DVD.YTD (year-to-date): in the period from Jan 1, 2007, of every 100 hidef disc units sold, 67 were Blu-ray and 33 HD DVD.SI (since inception): since the inception of both formats (April 2006 to the date shown above), of every 100 hidef disc units sold, 60 were Blu-ray and 40 HD DVD.

Relative sales of dual-format simultaneous new releases

It has been argued that the sales of exclusive titles don't tell us much about the format war, and that we should look at the relative sales of titles that get released on both formats.

HMM05: Data by Home Media Magazine as of May 27, 2007
HMM06: Data by Home Media Magazine as of June 24, 2007
NV03: Data from Nielsen VideoScan as of March 18, 2007
NVRW: Data based on release week Nielsen VideoScan figures
NWRW+1: Data based on week after release, Nielsen VideoScan figures

Important update: April 6, 2007 Sony released to the media a report tracking weekly sales of high-definition packaged media - both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc - from 10/1/06 through the week ending 3/18/07. The report, entitled Next Generation Disc Tracking Report, was prepared with sales figures from Nielsen VideoScan. It's the first such detailed sales data we've really seen, featuring graphical breakdowns by format, title and studio. The document has been posted in its entirety on thedigitalbits, with permission by Sony. Unfortunately it now has been pulled down.

In 2007, Home Media Magazine has begun publishing Blu-ray vs HD DVD sales information. To access the magazine, scroll down the page. On the left you'll see a box entitled "This Week's Digital Edition", and underneath the text "Read It Now! Click Here". Click that.

The information consists of relative percentages between BD and HD DVD, weekly, year-to-date and "since inception", as well as the weekly top 5 for BD and HD DVD, and their relative sales within each format.

This information has been combined with that feature on the following articles on PC Magazine:

As an HD-DVD only guy (for the next 3 months), I have to say those numbers are pretty painful.

I don't share the pain. There have been more new releases coming from the Blu-ray camp. Many HD DVD owners are sitting on their wallets waiting for a release that's worthy of a purchase.

This is further borne out by the fact that The Departed sold so well on both platforms but particularly well on HD DVD despite the price premium and lack of lossless audio. Once Universal/Paramount/Warner get off their arses and drop a few good titles we'll see the numbers improve.

I don't share the pain. There have been more new releases coming from the Blu-ray camp. Many HD DVD owners are sitting on their wallets waiting for a release that's worthy of a purchase.

This is further borne out by the fact that The Departed sold so well on both platforms but particularly well on HD DVD despite the price premium and lack of lossless audio. Once Universal/Paramount/Warner get off their arses and drop a few good titles we'll see the numbers improve.

I thought The Departed on HD DVD came with TrueHD, I could well be mistaken though.

It does appear here that the HD-DVD side is suffering from a lack of new releases. All of those listed are pretty old versus some newer titles for the blu-ray side. I think we'll have to see what happens when Universal picks up its titles.

Grubert-

Was there any information on total volume? I suspect it's still an extremely lower percentage of total discs sold.

Incredible, in one week alone (Jan 7th vs Jan 14th) BD managed to bridge the "since inception" gap between itself and HD DVD by a further 7%, to 92:100. The weekly sales figures *strongly* favor Blu-ray, and the week-over-week shows a gain in momentum rather than a leveling.

Was there any information on total volume? I suspect it's still an extremely lower percentage of total discs sold.

Unfortunately no. But I agree, volumes must be infinitesimal.

As a point of reference, just think Dreamworks has just let Aardman Studios go, inter alia because they only sold 5.1 million units of the Wallace & Gromit movie (vs 20.4 million copies of Madagascar).

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.-George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

They are giving relative percentages between BD and HD DVD, both year-to-date and "since inception", as well as the weekly top 5 for BD and HD DVD, as well as their relative sales within each format.

So, without further ado...

Week ended Jan 14
YTD: BD 100.00, HD 38.36
SI: BD 92.40, HD 100.00

Week ended Jan 7
YTD: BD 100.00, HD 47.14
SI: BD 85.05, HD 100.00

Excellent to finally get some reliable data. This is great news for the BDA and it does look like they are going to achieve a 3:1 sales ratio (100:33) in the coming months. I do believe that Videoscan covers 65% of all sales (AFAIK), and so is easily the most concerete data we have so far.

Also, looking at the data, it looks like it was all hardware driven since the top titles for both formats were older ones and not related to the most recent releases. Looking at this data, I have to say I have been wrong and that a game console - the PS3 will be the deciding factor. There are not enough titles on HD DVD and not enough xbox fans that will pick up the HD drive to counter the PS3 for now....

Thanks for the post Grubert. This confirms everything we already knew though. Blu-ray is winning the format war and doing so with the aid of the PS3 despite some of the critics who said the PS3 would be a complete nonfactor.

They are giving relative percentages between BD and HD DVD, both year-to-date and "since inception", as well as the weekly top 5 for BD and HD DVD, as well as their relative sales within each format.

So, without further ado...

Week ended Jan 14
YTD: BD 100.00, HD 38.36
SI: BD 92.40, HD 100.00

Week ended Jan 7
YTD: BD 100.00, HD 47.14
SI: BD 85.05, HD 100.00

So just so I make sure we are understanding this clearly--

These are relative percentages with the higher of the two being normalized to "100%" and the other expressed relative to the higher of the two?

So "Since Inception" BD has moved 92.4% as many units of software as HD-DVD, meaning its basically caught up, given that we're a couple weeks beyond that figure and the rate of increase would imply an easy overtake?

And Year-to-date sales of Blu ray media as of the most recent figure is 2.6X the sales of HD-DVD?

In some ways these numbers match with DVDEmpire. They seems more unbalanced than the Amazon numbers.

Looking at this data, I have to say I have been wrong and that a game console - the PS3 will be the deciding factor. There are not enough titles on HD DVD and not enough xbox fans that will pick up the HD drive to counter the PS3 for now....

I feel like hosting a DC Area BD victory party. (Plazman, maybe you can come!) I think Washington has got to be one of - if not *the* - most heavily represented area of the country on this entire forum.

I thought The Departed on HD DVD came with TrueHD, I could well be mistaken though.

Ooops sorry.

Interesting that Batman Begins and Serenity and older titles are doing well. I think this points to new users coming in and keeping the format going.

The PS3 is definitely taking effect but I don't think this is anything that the HD DVD group hasn't seen coming. The palpable anger her regarding HD DVD lack of releases is mirrored probably the the larger group of HD DVD owners. The good news is we're seeing more HD DVD advertisments and with some releases of newer movies HD DVD will make a comeback. I"m sure of it.

Looking at this data, I have to say I have been wrong and that a game console - the PS3 will be the deciding factor. There are not enough titles on HD DVD and not enough xbox fans that will pick up the HD drive to counter the PS3 for now....

BD sold 62% more titles than HD DVD! That's huge.

I'd say you have to credit Sony for using the promise of the PS3 so effectively. Measuring the effect of the PS3 on sales itself could only be done accurately if you had similar Hollywood support on both formats.

Of course if you combine the PS3 with the fact that studio support is heavily BD oriented then you have an obvious result. There's not much for hd-dvd owners, xbox or otherwise to buy...

Family DVD CollectionInsider thread last question? R.I.P.Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.Samuel Johnson 1709-1784, British Author

Interesting that Batman Begins and Serenity and older titles are doing well. I think this points to new users coming in and keeping the format going.

The PS3 is definitely taking effect but I don't think this is anything that the HD DVD group hasn't seen coming. The palpable anger her regarding HD DVD lack of releases is mirrored probably the the larger group of HD DVD owners. The good news is we're seeing more HD DVD advertisments and with some releases of newer movies HD DVD will make a comeback. I"m sure of it.

See, I am not so sure, these people will have to wait until April until the next 'wave' of Universal titles, if they are into HT, they know they will be missing out and the best way to counter that is with a PS3 for $500, so the question is, will people wait or will they buy a PS3, and by the looks of it a considerable number will buy a PS3 (judging by action of many HD DVD guys on this forum).

These are relative percentages with the higher of the two being normalized to "100%" and the other expressed relative to the higher of the two?

So "Since Inception" BD has moved 92.4% as many units of software as HD-DVD, meaning its basically caught up, given that we're a couple weeks beyond that figure and the rate of increase would imply an easy overtake?

And Year-to-date sales of Blu ray media as of the most recent figure is 2.6X the sales of HD-DVD?

Exactly right.

Quote:

In some ways these numbers match with DVDEmpire. They seems more unbalanced than the Amazon numbers.

They are because a lot of Europeans and Aussies have bought/imported HD DVD players (much more than BD players) and we're buying from amazon/dvdpacific like crazy. empire is not so overseas-friendly so their sales represent American sales more accurately IMO.

Quote:

- help almost prove that BD software sales since inception have passed up HD-DVD.

That's a pretty big deal. I couldn't find that data on the website - do you have a direct link, or was it only in print editions?

Scroll down a little. On the left you'll see a box entitled "This Week's Digital Edition", and underneath the text "Read It Now! Click Here". Click that.

The relative BD/HD ratios are on page 1. Top 5 are on page 8.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.-George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

These are relative percentages with the higher of the two being normalized to "100%" and the other expressed relative to the higher of the two?

So "Since Inception" BD has moved 92.4% as many units of software as HD-DVD, meaning its basically caught up, given that we're a couple weeks beyond that figure and the rate of increase would imply an easy overtake?

And Year-to-date sales of Blu ray media as of the most recent figure is 2.6X the sales of HD-DVD?

In some ways these numbers match with DVDEmpire. They seems more unbalanced than the Amazon numbers.

I feel like hosting a DC Area BD victory party. (Plazman, maybe you can come!) I think Washington has got to be one of - if not *the* - most heavily represented area of the country on this entire forum.

See, I am not so sure, these people will have to wait until April until the next 'wave' of Universal titles, if they are into HT, they know they will be missing out and the best way to counter that is with a PS3 for $500, so the question is, will people wait or will they buy a PS3, and by the looks of it a considerable number will buy a PS3 (judging by action of many HD DVD guys on this forum).

AVS patrons are atypical of the consumer IMO. Let us be a little honest here. There are a million PS3 in homes out there versus what 300k of HD DVD players? We're getting a good idea of what numbers of PS3 it will take to usurp HD DVD sales.

I think it's roughly around 3x. This is important because this is near the estimated numbers for HD DVD players sales (1.8-2.5 million Worldwide vs 6 million PS3)

So clearly the HD DVD group must ensure they are selling %40 of what the Blu-ray camp sells. Feb and March still look pretty lean for HD DVD so I expect Blu-ray to continue to pull ahead unless some more announcements are slotted in for HD DVD.

At least one can't blame Universal and Warner for this. Appears the Sony delivered enough PS3 to control losses in their gaming division to an acceptable level, while ensuring that BD takes control of the format battle.

In my books 75% market share is the magic number at which the other format goes away. I believe one reason Warner could be waiting is to see if BD can indeed get upto the 75% mark by June.

It is also remarkable that dvdempire results were so in line with Videoscan. Perhaps, they ARE reporting videoscan results on their site. For the first and second weeks of Jan, the Videocan numbers reported by Grubert almost mirror dvdempire. It's also interesting that like Grubert's numbers, even dvd empire is using % share.

Anyway. I'd assume that the BDA will use it for their case, if these numbers are verifiable and true. Which I still don't know

We haven't hit the next phase where we get web/network connectivity, Managed Copy and more complex interactivity.

The goal is still the same for HD DVD. Get players out and get them into homes. Amazon still has brisk sales of the A2 (rank 12 for DVD players) and the Euro XE1 and E1 players look to be ready for larger delivery.